Hillfolk Noir

Hillfolk Noir
Sunday, October 25th
8pm No Cover
Fort George Brewery
1483 Duane St.-Astoria
http://www.myspace.com/hillfolknoir


"Whether its the tolling bells of deathbed fevers, the loping swagger of a stranger in town walking down mainstreet as every gunslinger in town stops and stares, or the wagon trains of woe rolling past desolate, arid, landscapes on a breeze of radiation, Ward and his Hillfolkers flow through the last wisps of a world gone very wrong for the protagonist with crooked, receding grins at reapers grim and eager as they transcend the alt.country hokum with a full-tilt-off-kilter medicine show of captivating enchantment that should diffuse beyond the canyons, badlands and sad-swaying hillsides of Idaho."

-Medicine Stu, Maverick Magazine



Hillfolk Noir of Boise, Idaho returns to the Fort George Brewery and Public House on Sunday, October 25th. Travis Ward formed the band in the late 90's playing shows and selling low budget recordings under the name Travis Ward and Junkyard Bandstand. Soon a full time band was formed that toured the North West several times and sold a couple thousand self produced albums. After the Junkyard Bandstand rhythm section moved from Boise to Oregon in search of cheaper groceries, Travis formed a new group.

Hillfolk Noir still plays the old songs, but has a much more reckless sound and more new material than they know what to do with. They've played shows with James McMurtry, Built to Spill, Bonnie Prince Billy, Gerald Collier, Heroes and Villains, Train, Jesse Dayton, the Dusty 45's, Neva Denova, Neko Case, and tons of other great acts that you may or may not have heard of.

Hillfolk Noir recorded the foundation of their new album Diggin' Songs live in a generous friend's tiny North End house. With their amps in closets, drums next to the woodstove, singers in bathrooms, and microphones in every unoccupied corner, the four piece band breathed life into the songs and the characters that meander through them. The production continued in an even tinier garden shack, complete with egg crate soundproofing and a large spider population. With the dark theme of "Digging," these recordings wander out of the sage covered hills through beatnik juke joints, Appalachian swamp shacks, and psychedelic deltas. Exhausted and proud of the finished product, Hillfolk Noir humbly invites you to come into the fog and let your eyes roll back.

Hillfolk Noir's song "Johhny's Last Run" is available on the Flying M's "Coffee Garage Rock" comp. A great compilation of bands including; the Invasion, the Very Most, Paleo, Universal, and tons of others. Hillfolk Noir's song "The Great Grizzly Bear Scare" is available on Tender Loving Empire Records comp-"Friends and Friends of Friends. Another great compilation featuring lots of NW bands.